My daughter Heath was two years old when she wandered off, unnoticed, around the side of our home. "Gone!" was my one thought. When I regained the power of speech, I cried her name and sprinted around back, where she stood stock still, clearly puzzled by my panic. "Hi Daggy," she said matter-of-factly, garden trowel in hand. "I just digging for flowers."
Watching her, I had one of those new-parent awareness moments: I realized I would never be able to protect my kids from the world—all I could hope to do was equip them with a good set of tools, a challenging realization for any parent, but an additional worry because six years earlier, I had discovered that some of the tools in my own box were busted. What's worse, I knew that current science predicted a 50 percent probability that my own kids would inherit the same damaged kit.
Six years earlier, in late December, I sat down for a battery of intelligence, cognitive, and learning tests given by psychologist Andrew Morrel, PhD. The results were a big thumbs-up diagnosis for what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition calls Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Inattentive Type.
This diagnosis was the best Christmas present I could have received. I was not, as I had often feared, crazy and/or stupid. Most folks unconsciously break down tasks into prioritized elements and change the assigned priorities when circumstances dictate. I don't. For me, executive functioning, as it's technically known, comes only with hard work—if at all. When ADHD remains undiagnosed in adults, it attracts a host of nasty psychic outriders: anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, little to no mood control, and no time-management skills. So, along with receiving a prescription for medication, I worked with a behavioral therapist to get control of my life.
I'm certain most adults could shrug off a positive ADHD diagnosis. But, as a parent, it is the possibility that I will pass on that lethal combination of emotional instability and lack of focused productivity that has me worried. Russell Barkley, PhD, recognized as a leading researcher in the field, sounded the alarm for me. Barkley considers ADHD "the most inherited of all the psychiatric disorders."
The high probability that my kids will get it is not pure genetic predisposition, according to Gabor Maté, M.D., a Vancouver physician and author who, at 51, was diagnosed with ADHD. Maté believes that since 90 percent of the brain's circuitry develops after birth, environment plays a major role in determining whether ADHD behaviors occur in the child of an ADHD parent.
